Cox to Sell Valpak, Some Newspapers

ATLANTA—Cox Enterprises has hired Goldman Sachs to assist in the sale of Valpak, its cooperative direct mail advertising arm, and is also putting most of its newspaper holdings on the block as the company seeks to make investments in technology and moves away from its traditional advertising-supported media companies.

Valpak became a member of the Cox family in 1991. Earlier this year, Cox opened a $220 million, highly automated manufacturing facility (shown above) for Valpak in St. Petersburg, FL.

Cox also hired Citigroup to market its newspaper holdings to prospective buyers. In all, the company hopes to complete the sale of 10 dailies and 19 weeklies in Colorado, North Carolina and Texas in the first quarter of 2009.

It plans to keep the bigger papers in its chain, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Palm Beach (FL) Post and the Dayton (OH) Daily News.

About 80 percent of Cox’s $15 billion annual revenues is derived from sources other than the traditional newspaper, TV and radio channels.